Judge Carmel (Lino) Agius was re-elected vice-president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague for a further two years, effective from November 17.

Two years ago, Judge Agius became the first Maltese judge to be elected vice-president of a United Nations international court or tribunal.

At the same meeting, Judge Theodor Meron (USA) was elected President of the tribunal.

Judge Agius is currently an Appeals Chamber judge of both the Yugoslavia tribunal and the Rwanda tribunal (ICTR).

He was first elected by the UN General Assembly as Permanent Judge of the Yugoslavia tribunal in 2001 and was re-elected in 2004.

Between 2003 and 2010 he was Presiding Judge of Trial Chamber II of the ICTY during which time he presided over some of the major trials, including the multi-accused Popovic et al which dealt with the 1995 Srebrenica genocide.

Since 2010 he has been dealing with appeals from both the ICTY and the ICTR. Presently, he is presiding over two major appeals.

Since 2003 he has chaired the Rules Committee of the ICTY and was also a member of the Tribunal’s Bureau.

In 2010 and 2011 on behalf of the ICTY he coordinated and brought to a conclusion the drafting of the rules of procedure and evidence of the residual mechanism which were accepted by the UN Security Council and eventually adopted by the judges of the Residual Mechanism.

The Residual Mechanism is the body which will succeed the Tribunal and in 2011 Judge Agius was elected a judge of the Mechanism in November 2011.

Prior to his election on the tribunal, Judge Agius judged in Malta's Court of Appeal and Constitutional Court and was Acting Chief Justice on several occasions.

He retired from the Maltese Bench in August 2010 upon reaching retiring age.